Contest comes to San Juan College

FARMINGTON — An online presentation introducing a new San Juan College program designed to encourage and reward young entrepreneurs will take place next week, The Daily Times reports.

The virtual Hawk Tank Kick Off Information Session will be offered at 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26. The presentation will focus on the launch of the Hawk Tank program at the college, an initiative through which budding entrepreneurs compete against each other for start-up funding.

The Hawk Tank program began at Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, in 2016, and is expanding to San Juan College this spring through a partnership of the two institutions. The program is modeled after

the Emmy-winning “Shark Tank” reality television series that has aired on ABC since 2009.

Teams of San Juan College students and high school students from throughout the area are eligible to take part in the competition, which calls for them to present their ideas for new businesses to judges. The college teams will compete for a cash prize of up to $5,000, while the high school teams will compete for scholarships.

The winning San Juan College team will advance to the next round of competition, where it will face the winning team from Fort Lewis College. The team that wins that round will receive another $5,000 for a total of $10,000 in startup funding for its fledgling business.

Steve Elias, dean of the College of Business Administration at FLC, said the momentum for the project began building two years ago.